New Hearts investor Tony Bloom says Hearts have 'very good chance' of second this season

Tony Bloom has full belief that Hearts can quickly challenge the Old Firm in the first season since his £10m investment in the club.

The Brighton and Hove Albion owner will attend his first match since buying a 29.9% stake in Hearts as they face Aberdeen in their opening Premiership match at Tynecastle on Monday night.

Speaking to the media ahead of the game, Bloom reiterated his confidence that his long-term interest in the Edinburgh club can deliver an immediate challenge to Celtic and Rangers in the league and ultimately lead to Champions League football.

“I think we’ve got a very good chance of at least being second this season,” he said.

“It’s a very long term project, I hope to be an investor in Hearts for a very, very long time.

“We all know what it’s like in football, both in individual games and over a season there’s a lot of volatility.

“I genuinely believe that this current Hearts squad is very strong and every season it will develop and get stronger.

“So I think we can, even from this season, challenge for every tournament that we’re in.

“I think that Hearts this season will have an excellent season. I truly believe in the squad of players that has been assembled and I’ve got every faith in Derek McInnes’s ability to get the best out of them and to improve them.”

Recruitment drive and title ambition

Key to Bloom’s bold vision for Hearts is their recruitment through Jamestown Analytics, the football data engine that his driven his projects at Brighton and in Belgium with Union Saint-Gilloise, who won their league for the first time since 1935 last season.

The summer transfer window, the first since Bloom’s 29.9% stake in the club was ratified, has seen players such as Claudio Braga, Alexandros Kyziridis and Sabah Kerjota arrive from leagues in Norway, Slovakia and the third tier in Italy.

Jamestown Analytics has driven Brighton and USG to similarly unfashionable markets to unearth talent and Bloom’s steadfast belief in the system derives from seeing the results on the pitch at both clubs.

He said: “I don’t think Hearts should have a ceiling, I think it can be fairly unlimited.

“I’ve seen where we are at Brighton, when I took over the club 16 years ago, we just avoided relegation to League 2 and now we’re coming in, not hoping, but with a high expectation of finishing top ten, pushing for Europe every season.

“At Union Saint-Gilloise I took over seven years ago. We just avoided relegation to the third division, which really is very amateur football, and within three years got promoted to the top division.

“There’s no great shakes in that because it’s not that strong a division but then for the four seasons in the Belgium top division we’ve been challenging for the title in each of those four seasons and in each one of them at some point in the season we’ve been odds-on to win the league.

“The first three seasons it didn’t quite happen but, brilliantly, last season we managed to get the championship.

“If we have not won the league title in the next ten years, I will be very disappointed.”

“I can only talk from a Hearts point of view, I want to make sure that we are in the talk to win the title at the start of each season.

“We won’t just talk the talk but we will walk the walk.

“Not being in the bubble, I think it’s easier for me. I’ve seen what we’ve done at Brighton, I’ve seen what we’ve done at Union Saint-Gillois.

“So hence the confidence in where I think Hearts can go.

“I won’t talk about what the odds are. I would just like to say that if we have not won the league title in the next ten years, I will be very disappointed.”

Bloom’s remarks, with similar statements also given at a fans Q&A at Tynecastle on Sunday evening, have naturally raised eyebrows across Scottish football, where no team outside of Celtic and Rangers has won the top division in 40 years.

Talk of challenging the dominance of the Glasgow giants and of leading a team to the Champions League have been uttered before and never come to pass, and so Bloom is not surprised with the cynicism that will greet his words.

He said: “I understand there will be a lot of Celtic and Rangers fans who will be laughing and saying well I’ve heard it all before, maybe Hibs and Aberdeen too, and that’s fine

“I’m just saying as I see it, I’m not saying it’s going to be a straight line success.

“I’m not saying we’re going to win trophies this season, that season, next season.

“But I genuinely believe that we will be a significant factor in Scottish football right here, right now and for the long term.

“When I took over in Belgium, as I had a one-off press conference, I was probably more guarded.

“But seven years ago, things were a lot less proven, so I wasn’t as bullish. We were privately, but not so publicly, confident about what we could do at Union when I first came in.

“Here, I’ve just got a lot more confidence of what Hearts can do, where we are right now, compared to when I did a first press conference at Union seven years ago.

“It’s all about recruitment. There’s lots of things at a football club, you need really good people, community, fans, facilities both training facilities, the stadium which I know both are superb here.

“But if you haven’t got the players I can talk til the cows come home but there’s no chance of success.

“So it is so much down to the players and it may take some time but as I’ve said before I think the players that [sporting director] Graeme Jones, backed by the board, working with Derek have done over the last few months has been really, really strong and I think we’ll all see that in games to come.”

Bloom was then asked what he thought the reigning champions Celtic and their manager Brendan Rodgers would be making of his confidence in shaking up the top end of the Scottish Premiership.

“I don’t think Brendan’s going to be too concerned about what I’m saying,” Bloom admitted.

“And I’m not sure he’s not going to be too concerned about Hearts right now. But hopefully, over the course of the season, it would be great.

“And it’d be great for Scottish football if he is worried about Hearts.

“I do understand how difficult it is. I mean Celtic and Rangers’ budgets, perhaps six, seven times Hearts and Hibs and Aberdeen, that is a big obstacle to overcome.

“The significant advantage Hearts now has is it has access to James Analytic so that can massively help close the gap.

“I like a challenge and as you’ve heard me I am confident that Hearts will make a difference and it will be shown over the coming seasons on the pitch and hopefully we can grow as a club because if we get success on the pitch the club grows in totality.”

European goals

Playing in Europe is key to Bloom’s vision of raising Hearts up, both in terms of the prize money on offer and providing the shop window to sell players on for profit, and then reinvest in the squad.

Bloom will not be investing further cash into Hearts as he keeps his involvement within UEFA’s laws on multi-club ownership.

But he sees the Champions League as a competition where Hearts can be competing in the coming years – and he strongly believes that Scottish success in all European formats will be important for the future.

He said: “It is a one-off investment because of the UEFA rules, they’ve made it quite clear in the last 12 months that if you own 30% or more of two clubs who can’t play in the same European competition.

“That’s clear, I’ve spoken directly to UEFA to absolutely 100% clarify it so that if Brighton and Hearts do get drawn in the same tournament then both clubs can play.

“That’s the absolute priority which is why there won’t be any more investment from me, certainly while the UEFA rules stay as they are.

“I’m aware that prize money in Scotland is very low and obviously, me coming from the English Premier League, it is pitifully low.

“But that is this reality and I don’t think we should be crying about it. We need to improve the situation. How do we improve it?

“We need the quality on the pitch. We need the tournament to be more competitive and I think that’s what Hearts will bring to the table and I genuinely believe that this would be really good for Scottish football.

“The fact that the Scottish coefficient has reduced so much that the champions have to win two games to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League is a terrible situation for Scottish football.

“I’m very confident that will change because, I can’t speak for other clubs, but Hearts will be a force and when we get into Europe we’ll be winning games and we will help lift that coefficient.

“It takes time, the way the system works. So I think all of Scottish football and other clubs should be happy about that because, for example, Celtic fans should be wanting the other teams in Europe.

“I know they’re not exactly going to be cheering on Rangers, that’s obvious, but certainly it’s really good for Celtic if teams like Dundee United and Aberdeen do well in Europe because that lifts the coefficient and it’s really not good that the top team, the champions of Scotland, have got a good chance of not playing in the group stage of the Champions League.

“As and when Hearts do win the league, hopefully the coefficient is such that we go straight into the Champions League group stages – just like USG have, by winning the league, they’ve gone straight into this season’s group stages of the Champions League.”